Lyal Edward Brugman

Lyal Edward Brugman passed peacefully in his sleep in the early morning of November 15, 2022. He was 102 years old.

Services for Lyal will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 3rd, at O'Connor Memorial Chapel. Due to the weather no graveside service is planned. A potluck luncheon will be held at Triumph Baptist Church immediately following the service.

He is survived by three sons, Wayne, Troy, and Kelly; two daughters, Linda and Johnette; two stepdaughters, Lynn and Karen; and Amber; a granddaughter who he raised; as well as, over 35 more grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is also survived by several who have cited him as a strong father figure and mentor in their formative years, as well as his closest friend and fishing buddy, Dennis Kolling.

He was preceded in death by his former wife, Jean Essley (née Rushford); wife, Florence “Toots” Brugman (née Bishop); brothers, George and Ray; sisters, Dawn, Fern, and Grace; as well as many close friends, such as, Paddy Carver and Jack Vaughn to name only a few of many.

Lyal was born to John and Jean (Tate) Brugman of Donnelly, MN on October 17, most likely of 1920, but possibly 1919 according to earlier claims. The family soon moved to a shotgun shack in the Ponsford area of Minnesota. There, Lyal, and his brothers, George and Ray, along with his best friend Paddy Carver, grew up hunting, fishing, and running trap lines with a cheerful, Robin Hood-like disregard for the legality of it all! These things and a storied road trip from Dillworth, MN to Kelso, Washington, set against the hardscrabble backdrop of the Great Depression, made for dozens of priceless stories to account for Lyal’s early years. They did make it to Kelso, incidentally…with 52 flat tires, and the help of a cooking pot, field corn, and a length of siphon hose they dubbed “the Oklahoma Credit Card.”

At the onset of WWII, Lyal joined the U.S. Navy where his duty station was Ship’s cook First Class, and his battle station was as an Anti-Aircraft gunner aboard the USS Santa Fe, a Cleveland Class Light Cruiser. There he fought his way across the Pacific to Tokyo Bay, including such well known places as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, receiving along the way a Purple Heart and various other decorations…and ever the rebel, one temporary demotion for making “joy juice,” a sort of homemade liquor! His time in the service did not define him as it did some men, and of his 68 combat operations he would only shrug and say, “We did what we had to do.”

Lyal’s careers and titles were too many to recount. He was a farmer, a logger, sawyer, harvest hand, trapper, CCC camp laborer, truck driver, bootlegger, carnival worker, mechanic, trick shooter, prize fighter, peacekeeper, boxing judge and trainer, certified chef and more. In the 1960s, Lyal found his niche as a salesman starting with cookware and water softeners, and eventually Siding and Windows. This in turn led him to start a pair of exterior remodeling companies Great Falls Exterior, and later Montana Window King. He sold and installed Exterior remodeling products for over 30 years, never fully retiring until he was 88 years old. Additionally, he volunteered his skills as cook to the Assembly of God Men’s Ministry, Royal Ranger’s Scouting Program, and the Great Falls Amateur Boxing Club, where he also volunteered as a Judge and Chief of Officials.

Strong even as an elderly man, his sons often had to remind him “Now Dad, remember you’re not 75 anymore!” His favorite past times were hunting and fishing, which he enjoyed to the fullest, all the way to the ages of 97 and 98 respectively. He enjoyed a good laugh and had a sense of humor and timing that kept many people in stitches.

Although rough and gruff for most of his days, the last decade of Lyal’s life was marked by his renewed faith in Christ, he tried hard to apply the lessons he learned from his well-worn Bible.

This is but the tip of the iceberg for Lyal. He will be sorely missed, but through his belief in Christ we look forward to seeing him again.